1 Kings 9:1-9

Contemporary English Version

The Lord Appears to Solomon Again

(2 Chronicles 7.11-22)

9 The Lord's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished, and Solomon had built everything he wanted. ²^(A) Some time later the Lord appeared to him again in a dream, just as he had done at Gibeon. ³^(B) The Lord said:

I heard your prayer and what you asked me to do. This temple you have built is where I will be worshiped forever. It belongs to me, and I will never stop watching over it.

⁴You must obey me, as your father David did, and be honest and fair. Obey my laws and teachings, ⁵^(C) and I will keep my promise to David that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.

⁶But if you or any of your descendants disobey my commands or start worshiping foreign gods, ⁷I will no longer let my people Israel live in this land I gave them. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped. Then people everywhere will think this nation is only a joke and will make fun of it. ⁸^(D) This temple will become a pile of rocks!^[a] Everyone who walks by will be shocked, and they will ask, “Why did the Lord do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?” ⁹Then they will answer, “We know why the Lord did this. The people of Israel rejected the Lord their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods.”